Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MBP 13 2018 - Safari stutter/glitch/freeze - can someone please test?

M

markusberger

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
67
51





For everyone who has the same issue, this seems to fix the problem:


jimtonic01 said:
There was indeed a missing key in NVRAM. The fix can be found here - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8427286?answerId=33791001022#33791001022 - Thank you mattrogers

in short
  1. boot into recovery
  2. open terminal
  3. type: nvram 8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c:epid_provisioned=%01%00%00%00
  4. press enter
  5. reboot
Click to expand...









-------------------------------
Original post


I just received a base model 13 inch MBP 2018 with Touch Bar. I have stutters one some websites in Safari where the mouse pointer and the entire machine won't react for a split second every few seconds. I made a video of the whole problem:




Can someone with a new 2018 MacBook Pro please test these two websites:

https://www.bloomberg.com/europe

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7137846/ (click on the trailer preview)

On the Bloomberg website, as you can see on the video, when moving the mouse (with the trackpad) in a circle the pointer just freezes every few seconds. Even when the tab is only in background, the entire machine across all apps stutters. It is even worse on the IMDB trailer page when viewing the video.

Can someone please test if your 2018 MBP shows the same behavior on these pages. Just keep moving the mouse around and you should see the stutters (or not)?

Is my MBP defective? What I tried:

- reinstall High Sierra from internet recovery --> freezes
- use Safari Technology Preview --> freezes
- reset Safari/delete/deactivate all extensions/cache --> freezes
- clean install Mojave Beta, just after reinstall is done test with Safari (no other software etc. installed) --> freezes
- use Chrome --> NO freezes

Yesterday I installed the new supplemental update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 but this doesn't improve anything :(

Is my machine defective or is this some Safari bug with the new 2018 MacBook Pros? Does yours show the same behavior? Thanks! What should i do? I just got this 2000€ laptop on Monday and I find this not really acceptable...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: VeryVito
I am running the Public Beta of Mojave and I cannot replicate this issue in Safari 12.0.

Not sure what to suggest, sorry.

(Edit: forgot to mention, I am running a 2018 13" MacBook Pro (2.3Ghz i5, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM) with Mac OS 10.14 Mojave Beta 18A336e)
 
fooyork said:
I am running the Public Beta of Mojave and I cannot replicate this issue in Safari 12.0.

Not sure what to suggest, sorry.

(Edit: forgot to mention, I am running a 2018 13" MacBook Pro (2.3Ghz i5, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM) with Mac OS 10.14 Mojave Beta 18A336e)
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll call apple and see if they have an idea...
 
raab said:
No issues with a 2018 13/i7/1tb/16gb
Click to expand...

very strange, so it seems to be my machine. thx!

gp101 said:
No issues with a base 2018 13"

EDIT: I see you've already tried clean installing :oops:
Click to expand...

hmm, yes, actually already twice because i have not seen any problem like this. just got off the phone with apple care, they say it needs to be replaced but don't know what's wrong (sac, nvram reset did not help)... well hopefully the replacement works. but if you and others have no issues i have hopes
 
I actually had a very similar issue with a mid-level 2017 12" MacBook, with Safari in particular. For seemingly no reason, the machine would lock up in this way for a few seconds at a time. Sometimes it would just stall, other times I would get a non-spinning beachball.

I had that machine for 3 weeks and returned it before my return period was up. While that was one of the reasons, it ultimately ended up being too small for my liking. But seeing your video and also not finding much of anything when I searched about this issue among 2017 12" MacBooks, my personal opinion is that it's a hardware issue.
 
MMcCraryNJ said:
I actually had a very similar issue with a mid-level 2017 12" MacBook, with Safari in particular. For seemingly no reason, the machine would lock up in this way for a few seconds at a time. Sometimes it would just stall, other times I would get a non-spinning beachball.

I had that machine for 3 weeks and returned it before my return period was up. While that was one of the reasons, it ultimately ended up being too small for my liking. But seeing your video and also not finding much of anything when I searched about this issue among 2017 12" MacBooks, my personal opinion is that it's a hardware issue.
Click to expand...

Certainly seems like it. It's on the way back to Apple now, I returned it. Besides this freezing issue which the Apple support did not further explain to me even after the new anti-throttleing update the MBP got really hot just browsing the web and writing emails. Considering there where no background activities like indexing etc. I found this not acceptable.

Oh well, I'm back with my 2011 17inch monstrum now, it will have to work a little longer until I try my luck with another of these new MBPs...

If you found the 12inch Macbook too small, which one did you end up getting?
 
My brand new 2018 13 inch macbook pro does the exact same thing! It gives stutter/glitch starts to run hot, and it shuts off. I am going to return it tomorrow.
 
markusberger said:
I just received a base model 13 inch MBP 2018 with Touch Bar. I have stutters one some websites in Safari where the mouse pointer and the entire machine won't react for a split second every few seconds. I made a video of the whole problem:




Can someone with a new 2018 MacBook Pro please test these two websites:

https://www.bloomberg.com/europe

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7137846/ (click on the trailer preview)

On the Bloomberg website, as you can see on the video, when moving the mouse (with the trackpad) in a circle the pointer just freezes every few seconds. Even when the tab is only in background, the entire machine across all apps stutters. It is even worse on the IMDB trailer page when viewing the video.

Can someone please test if your 2018 MBP shows the same behavior on these pages. Just keep moving the mouse around and you should see the stutters (or not)?

Is my MBP defective? What I tried:

- reinstall High Sierra from internet recovery --> freezes
- use Safari Technology Preview --> freezes
- reset Safari/delete/deactivate all extensions/cache --> freezes
- clean install Mojave Beta, just after reinstall is done test with Safari (no other software etc. installed) --> freezes
- use Chrome --> NO freezes

Yesterday I installed the new supplemental update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 but this doesn't improve anything :(

Is my machine defective or is this some Safari bug with the new 2018 MacBook Pros? Does yours show the same behavior? Thanks! What should i do? I just got this 2000€ laptop on Monday and I find this not really acceptable...
Click to expand...
So the fact that Chrome doesnt have the issue tells me this is not a hardware issue. It’s either a bug with Safari (which may or may not be fixed with Mojave) or you have some other process interfering with Safari. If it was hardware related you’d have issues across the board with WiFi/CPU usage.

I’d suggest two things:
1). Make sure you computer has finished its initial spotlight indexing. You may need to let the computer run overnight to do this. If the indexing is still going on it could be slowing down certain applications as it tries to accomplish both tasks.

2). Do you any other applications open on the background? If so, try Safari after closing all other apps. Maybe one of the apps is freezing up.

3). Might sound silly but check you WiFi connection speeds through your MacBook, if you are getting a slow speed it could be causing the pages to be slow at loading and causing safari to get laggy.

4). Finally, if you still the issue after doing the above, contact AppleCare and they should take care of you.
 
The same issue happens on my 2017 13” MBP w/ TB. It wasn’t always there, it started maybe around the last one or two High Sierra updates. When a video is playing, the cursor will freeze every few seconds. It happens in Safari and certain apps when viewing videos (e.g., viewing a trailer for a movie in iTunes or a Wikia video auto playing in Safari) or Tweetbot if you have the auto-play video in timeline option turned on. The problem seems to be related to videos, but fascinatingly it never happens when watching YouTube so it may be the video player(s) involved.

The only time it doesn’t happen is in third-party browsers like Firefox. I can’t seem to quite put my finger on hardware or software.

Couple that with my other Safari issue where opening more than thirty tabs and you happen to have an active text input, opening a new tab takes a few seconds longer. The more tabs you have, the longer it takes for the new tab to open. More or less what this other person described here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8251332. This tab issue happens even after a fresh install of High Sierra with no Apple ID/iCloud accounts attached to potentially mess with anything.
 
I think I might have figured it out.

I am running a 2018 MBP with ‘hey siri’ capabilities. However, Siri is broken on this build of Mojave for some users - though it does hear the ‘hey siri’ command, and then *tries* to activate...

I think it might be ‘listening’ for a possible ‘hey siri’ command, and trying to start a broken script, resulting in a second or so interruption in sound - as it would drop the sound on a ‘hey siri’ command anyway.

I’m going to test this hypothesis when I get home from the gym.
 
Painter2002 said:
I’d suggest two things:
1). Make sure you computer has finished its initial spotlight indexing. You may need to let the computer run overnight to do this. If the indexing is still going on it could be slowing down certain applications as it tries to accomplish both tasks.

2). Do you any other applications open on the background? If so, try Safari after closing all other apps. Maybe one of the apps is freezing up.

3). Might sound silly but check you WiFi connection speeds through your MacBook, if you are getting a slow speed it could be causing the pages to be slow at loading and causing safari to get laggy.

4). Finally, if you still the issue after doing the above, contact AppleCare and they should take care of you.
Click to expand...


1.) was completely finished, i left it running all night. istat clearly showed 0-1% cpu activity several hours prior to testing the freezing.
2.) nope
3.) was right next to a wifi repeater, my old macbook pro did not have this problem in the same spot ;)
4.) did that, they said it is "probably some hardware issue". using the type of unspecific apple care speak that doesn't really help diagnosing the problem...

thanks anyway, i returned the laptop. in addition to this issue, it also ran very hot (after throttleling patch). will now wait until the 16 gb models are in stock and try my luck again.


Edelheid said:
The same issue happens on my 2017 13” MBP w/ TB. It wasn’t always there, it started maybe around the last one or two High Sierra updates. When a video is playing, the cursor will freeze every few seconds. It happens in Safari and certain apps when viewing videos (e.g., viewing a trailer for a movie in iTunes or a Wikia video auto playing in Safari) or Tweetbot if you have the auto-play video in timeline option turned on. The problem seems to be related to videos, but fascinatingly it never happens when watching YouTube so it may be the video player(s) involved.

The only time it doesn’t happen is in third-party browsers like Firefox. I can’t seem to quite put my finger on hardware or software.

Couple that with my other Safari issue where opening more than thirty tabs and you happen to have an active text input, opening a new tab takes a few seconds longer. The more tabs you have, the longer it takes for the new tab to open. More or less what this other person described here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8251332. This tab issue happens even after a fresh install of High Sierra with no Apple ID/iCloud accounts attached to potentially mess with anything.
Click to expand...


this isssue on a 2000€ machine just drove me crazy. especially related to something so basic that a 200€ laptop can do, browsing the web.

i didn't want to switch to chrome because the pcture in picture function of safari appealed to me.

very odd bug, even odder that even after a clean high sierra install, then another clean mojave install and using safari technology preview this isssue didn't go away.

i also stumbled upon the website settings autoplay media settings. on the bloomberg website it got rid of the issue, but not on imdb. it is just very bothering to have problems like that appear that can't be replicated easily. also tried using no adblocker and no extenstions at all but that didn't help either...


fooyork said:
I think I might have figured it out.

I am running a 2018 MBP with ‘hey siri’ capabilities. However, Siri is broken on this build of Mojave for some users - though it does hear the ‘hey siri’ command, and then *tries* to activate...

I think it might be ‘listening’ for a possible ‘hey siri’ command, and trying to start a broken script, resulting in a second or so interruption in sound - as it would drop the sound on a ‘hey siri’ command anyway.

I’m going to test this hypothesis when I get home from the gym.
Click to expand...


i turned hey siri off (the always listening variant) during the installation/setup completely off. but it might be related in your case, no one knows ;) good luck!




before returning mine i also tried this which solved some graphics/safari related issues on a hackintosh i built but unfortuneately didn't get rid of the safari freezing on the 2018 mbp 13:

  1. Close Safari
  2. Open the Terminal app (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
  3. Enter the following command: defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1
  4. Then hit return
  5. Now relaunch Safari
  6. You will see the Debug menu in Safari’s menubar
  7. Click Debug
  8. Select Drawing/Compositing Flags
  9. Choose “Disable Canvas Accelerated Drawing” and “Disable Full Page Accelerated Drawing”.
  10. Now check to see if your problem is fixed.
 

Attachments

  • safari-debug.jpg
    safari-debug.jpg
    222.1 KB · Views: 635
Last edited:
markusberger said:
1.) was completely finished, i left it running all night. istat clearly showed 0-1% cpu activity several hours prior to testing the freezing.
2.) nope
3.) was right next to a wifi repeater, my old macbook pro did not have this problem in the same spot ;)
4.) did that, they said it is "probably some hardware issue". using the type of unspecific apple care speak that doesn't really help diagnosing the problem...

thanks anyway, i returned the laptop. in addition to this issue, it also ran very hot (after throttleling patch). will now wait until the 16 gb models are in stock and try my luck again.





this isssue on a 2000€ machine just drove me crazy. especially related to something so basic that a 200€ laptop can do, browsing the web.

i didn't want to switch to chrome because the pcture in picture function of safari appealed to me.

very odd bug, even odder that even after a clean high sierra install, then another clean mojave install and using safari technology preview this isssue didn't go away.

i also stumbled upon the website settings autoplay media settings. on the bloomberg website it got rid of the issue, but not on imdb. it is just very bothering to have problems like that appear that can't be replicated easily. also tried using no adblocker and no extenstions at all but that didn't help either...





i turned hey siri off (the always listening variant) during the installation/setup completely off. but it might be related in your case, no one knows ;) good luck!




before returning mine i also tried this which solved some graphics/safari related issues on a hackintosh i built but unfortuneately didn't get rid of the safari freezing on the 2018 mbp 13:

  1. Close Safari
  2. Open the Terminal app (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
  3. Enter the following command: defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1
  4. Then hit return
  5. Now relaunch Safari
  6. You will see the Debug menu in Safari’s menubar
  7. Click Debug
  8. Select Drawing/Compositing Flags
  9. Choose “Disable Canvas Accelerated Drawing” and “Disable Full Page Accelerated Drawing”.
  10. Now check to see if your problem is fixed.
Click to expand...

Markus, yes - I have now tested it and in my case it appears to be a 'hey Siri'/Mojave/T2 issue... I will need to see what the next PB build does, and then see what the GM delivers...

It appears yours is something completely different.
 
  • Like
Reactions: markusberger
good to know! the t2 chip worries me. have you attempted to restore the t2 firmware? apple seems to have a rather complicated procedure for this, so it seems as if it's easier than ever accidentally bricking the machine. i was going to try it before returning the laptop in order to see if my freezing issue would be related to it, but didn't go through.

messing with Apple Configurator 2 etc. seemed to much of a risk in this early stage of 2018 mbp...
 
I see you've already returned it, but just for reference, my off-the-shelf 13" doesn't do this (tested with the two sites you posted).
 
markusberger said:
On the Bloomberg website, as you can see on the video, when moving the mouse (with the trackpad) in a circle the pointer just freezes every few seconds. Even when the tab is only in background, the entire machine across all apps stutters. It is even worse on the IMDB trailer page when viewing the video.

Can someone please test if your 2018 MBP shows the same behavior on these pages. Just keep moving the mouse around and you should see the stutters (or not)?
Click to expand...

I get the exact same glitch when Bloomberg is opened, even on a non active tab.
I also get the glitch when watching a video from Apple TV / Movies section, e.g.: a trailer. as described in this video :

You'll notice there is also no video displaying...
 
yea i have not figured out what exactly causes this. returned the MBP13 2018 but hope for you guys that Apple fixes this soon!
 
Not exactly sure if this is the same problem but when I had my 2016 MBP TB 13 I had severe stuttering problems watching any type of video with DRM, either in macOS or in Bootcamp. Chrome seemed to be OK, but still got constant stuttering - it even affected the mouse like in @Florent's video.

I believe it was a DRM issue, and the thing that clinched it for me was I was unable to stream Beats 1 radio (in Apple Music) as well. It just wouldn't load. The odd thing about it was all the other radio stations worked. Just not Beats 1. And my Mac was freezing up every 3 seconds.

In any event it was specifically due to installing the Mojave beta and then subsequently trying to leave the beta to downgrade to High Sierra -- that's when the problems started. I had to reinstall the Mojave beta, and once I did everything started working again. I eventually was successful downgrading back to High Sierra, but for the life of me I can't remember what exactly I did (sorry).
 
swerve147 said:
Not exactly sure if this is the same problem but when I had my 2016 MBP TB 13 I had severe stuttering problems watching any type of video with DRM, either in macOS or in Bootcamp. Chrome seemed to be OK, but still got constant stuttering - it even affected the mouse like in @Florent's video.

I believe it was a DRM issue, and the thing that clinched it for me was I was unable to stream Beats 1 radio (in Apple Music) as well. It just wouldn't load. The odd thing about it was all the other radio stations worked. Just not Beats 1. And my Mac was freezing up every 3 seconds.

In any event it was specifically due to installing the Mojave beta and then subsequently trying to leave the beta to downgrade to High Sierra -- that's when the problems started. I had to reinstall the Mojave beta, and once I did everything started working again. I eventually was successful downgrading back to High Sierra, but for the life of me I can't remember what exactly I did (sorry).
Click to expand...

I received my replacement today and this issue seems to be gone with my new machine. No more stuttering for now.
 
I got in contact with Apple support, they made me run an app that I guess keeps track of what the OS & hardware is doing. Should hear back from them in a couple of days. I will keep you guys posted.
 
I had a similar issue with my MBP 13 2013 but not always and I remember it happened above all with flash player websites and Youtube...
Years ago I found a trick:
1) Open Safari
2) Clean history ( but not mandatory step just suggested )
3) Open only one panel with google page on it
4) Do not touch the MBP at least for a minute
5) Close Safari
6) When I reopened it all worked

I know it was funny but I remember that it worked...

With my 2015 MBP 15 it never happens and also I tested your websites and no problem.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back